In times of turbulence, we look to leaders. You, as a salesperson, are a leader. Your customer is looking to you. What does your customer need from you during uncertain or scary times?

There have been different buzz words flying around over the last several weeks. Words like “social distancing,” “self-isolation,” and “quarantini.” Another buzz word everyone is talking about right now: “Virtual Selling.” Let’s talk about it.

During times of uncertainty, we look to the leaders. Not just to tell us what to do, but literally to tell us how to feel, to help us craft our own attitude. These are my top 10 tips that will help you sustain positive energy in your organization and with your sales team.

When we’re selling in a time of fear, we don’t just want to overcome fear. We want to REPLACE fear and anxiety with that which is constructive, edifying, compassionate and uplifting. And we do that by focusing our energy and effort on the things we CAN control during uncertain times.

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ll notice the abundance of societal disruption in our daily lives that we simply cannot control. Even in the midst of all this uncertainty (and maybe even because of all this uncertainty), the world needs sales professionals. And your sales mindset needs to be stronger than ever.

It’s quite a tightrope we have to walk between brave or brash. We want to be sure that we’re being safe and smart above all, but we also have to be reasonable and understand that we’ve still got a job to do! And while we’re doing that job, we’re going to meet customers who are walking the same tightrope.

Would you pay $52 to upgrade to first class? Is it worth it to you? We make value equations in our minds and we do it all the time. Our customers are constantly making these value equations, too. And we’re all asking the question, “Is it worth it to me?”

How would your salespeople describe a typical sales meeting at your company? Most sales professionals that I talk to would rate their sales meetings somewhere between “The highlight of my week. Inspirational, educational, motivational!” and “I’d rather jam a pencil into my eyeball.”

I want to be clear. If you’re a good salesperson, you deserve to be PAID like it. And I have no problem with a salesperson making a comfortable living. But is income the best measuring stick for sales success? Let’s talk about it…

Too many times I see salespeople who don’t assume the sale when a new prospect enters. They sit back and they wait for their customer to prove that they’re a real buyer. It’s not the customer’s job to prove themselves to you! It’s YOUR job to expect the sale each and every time.